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City Zoological Gardens
Disclaimer:- In the Canon:- There is no such thing as a City Zoo as we would understand it. The nearest thing is the rather moribund and dwindling menagerie at the Palace, which in normal circumstances is not open to the public . In the Pessimal Discworld:- .Howandalandian Assassin Johanna Smith-Rhodes is happy in her work as teacher of Nature Studies, Zoology and Advanced Combat Techniques to the pupils at the Guild school. To accomodate her expertise and free up space at Filigree Street for the massive influx of new pupils who were enrolled when the School ceased to be boys-only, the Guild has established an Animal Management Unit on Short Street to centralise its breeding facility for scorpions, spiders, snakes, Tree Frogs and all forms of animal and botanical life of a venomous or otherwise professionally interesting nature. All the herpetoriums, vivariums, breeding tanks and hothouses formerly on the main Guild site have been transferred here and are now under the direct management of the School's Natural History department. This consists of Johanna and her deputy, the School's Botany mistress Doctor Davinia Bellamy. Davinia, who as a florist had an interesting sideline in Saying it With Flowers (the message was usually "Drop Dead!") was recruited by the Guild and put through a Mature Students Class to qualify her as a Licenced Assassin and, er, regularise ''a situation where she had accepted hard cash and inhumed thirteen people without a licence to practice. While Johanna is musing on the possibility of getting the Guild to approve the purchase of larger hunting animals whose study would benefit the pupils of an Assassins' School - so far, the Dark Council has been reluctant to approve the necessary investment in lions, tigers and black panthers that she has in mind - elsewhere in the city, one of CMOT Dibbler's hsalf-baked plans is coming unstuck. Having come into land outside the City, Dibbler has been in contact with his relative Klaus van Djibbler in faraway Rimwards Howondaland. He has taken receipt of a shipload of Howondalandian wildlife - lions, leopards, gorillas, chimpanzees, rhinoceri, bewildebeeste, among others - and is intending to set up a Safari Park on his land where people might drive their carriages down a central road and observe the wonders of Nature from the comfort of their own vehicles. But the animals get no further than a fund-raiser in Hide Park, where mischievous hands unfasten cages or break locks. Commander Vimes and the Watch are initally tasked with containig the situation, but it becomes clear that the escaped animals need more than containment. Vetinari summons Johanna, and instructs her to take charge and supervise the roundup. This she does, meeting Ponder Stibbons for the first time and, like many another capable Pratchett heroine, recognising an inept male who needs looking after by a strong capable woman. Ponder is not opposed to this. While rounding up the last of the animals, and mindful that Lord Downey has given her a blank cheque to pay for a Vimes-embarrassing operation, in the forn of fifteen thousand dollars in Guild bonds, she reflects. Dibbler has the land. She has the animals and the cash. Why not.... A quick agreement with Adorah Belle Dearheart later, a convoy of Golems sets out to Dibbler's land set up rough-and -ready enclosures to contain the animals. A quick bout of negotiating at a City Council later in which everyone gets somethning out of the deal, and the City Zoo is born... Refer to story: 'Nature Studies. Nature Studies by A.A. Pessimal' ''The City Zoo also appears in '' 'Why and Were' and 'http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7485737/1/Zoo-Tales'''